General Principles
1. Be yourself. Don’t alter your voice for a subject. Relax and write with confidence
and in a way that comes easily and naturally. Sometimes this will mean discarding
the first few paragraphs until you start writing naturally. “Never say anything in
writing that you wouldn’t comfortably say in conversation” (Zinsser, 27). When
possible, use the first person – it usually comes out more natural.
2. Write for yourself – that will make it interesting to the reader.
3. Write with humanity and warmth.
4. Omit needless words. Write simply and without clutter. Don’t add words for
“style.”
a. “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no
unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no
unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.” (Strunk and
White, 23)
b. “Strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves
no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that
carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive
construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what—these are
the thousand and one adulterations that weaken the strength of a
sentence.” (Zinsser, 8)
c. “Rich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and
sometimes nauseating.” (Strunk and White, 72)
5. Be clear. Clear writing comes from clear thinking. Know logic, rhetoric and your
subject.
a. “Muddiness is not merely a disturber of prose, it is also a destroyer of life,
of hope: death on the highway caused by a badly worded road sign,
heartbreak among lovers caused by a misplaced phrase in a wellintentioned letter, anguish of a traveler expecting to be met at a railroad
station and not being met because of a slipshod telegram. Think of the
tragedies that are rooted in ambiguity, and be clear! When you say
something, make sure you have said it.” (Strunk and White, 79)
b. “Jaw-breaking words often cover up very sloppy thinking.” (Thomas
Sowell)
c. “Remember this: a well-written book with bad arguments will have more
influence than a poorly-written book with endless nuance and lifeless
prose. Remember this too: lifeless prose comes from lifeless minds.” (Scot
McKnight)
d. “Good writers write in such a way that one can read them aloud and know
what they mean. Bad writers have to be studied and re-read and
pondered.” (Scot McKnight)
6. Avoid fancy words.
a. “Never use a long word where a short one will do.” (George Orwell)
b. “Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be
tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready
and able. Anglo-Saxon is a livelier tongue than Latin, so use Anglo-Saxon
words. In this, as in so many matters pertaining to style, one’s ear must be
one’s guide…” (Strunk and White, 77)
c. “Look for all fancy wordings and get rid of them.” (Jacques Barzun)
7. “Write as if you were dying. At the same time, assume you write for an audience
consisting solely of terminal patients. That is, after all, the case. What would you
begin writing if you knew you would die soon? What could you say to a dying
person that would not enrage by its triviality?” (Dillard, 68)
Usage Principles
1. Use active verbs. Example: “He was seen by Joe” should be “Joe saw him.”
a. “Make active verbs activate your sentences, and try to avoid the kind that
need an appended preposition to complete their work. Don’t set up a
business that you can start or launch. Don’t say that the president of the
company stepped down. Did he resign? Did he retire? Did he get fired? Be
precise. Use precise verbs.” (Zinsser, 69)
2. Most adverbs are unnecessary. Replace them with precise verbs. Beware of
adverbs that have the same meaning as the verb (“grinned widely,” “sadly
moped”).
3. Most adjectives are unnecessary. Kick the “adjective-by-habit.”
4. Remove common clichés, cheap words, and made-up words.
5. Remove qualifiers: a bit, a little, sort of, kind of, rather, quite, very, too, pretty
much, in a sense.
a. “[Qualifiers] are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the
blood of words.” (Strunk and White, 73)
b. “Good writing is lean and confident.” (Zinsser, 71)
6. Keep sentences short.
a. “There’s not much to be said about the period except that most writers
don’t reach it soon enough.” (Zinsser, 71)
7. Remove laborious phrases. Why use “at the present time” instead of “now”?
8. Remove “experiencing.” “Are you experiencing pain?” could be “Does it hurt?”
9. Remove unnecessary euphemism. A “depressed socioeconomic area” is a “slum.”
10. Remove long words when a short one will do. Examples: Assistance (help),
facilitate (ease), implement (do), referred to as (called).
11. Remove word clusters that explain to go about explaining: “I might add,” “It
should be pointed out,” “It is interesting to note.”
12. Remove verbal camouflage. Corporations and governments are often tempted to
use this. “A negative cash-flow position” means a corporation is bankrupt.
“Involuntary methodologies” means layoffs.
13. “Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean
‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something
really infinite.” (C. S. Lewis)
14. Use exclamation points sparingly. Instead, try to “construct your sentence so that
the order of the words will put the emphasis where you want it.” (Zinsser, 72)
15. Alert the reader to mood or subject changes. Examples: but, yet, however,
nevertheless, still, instead, thus, therefore, meanwhile, now, later, today.
a. Sentences can begin with “but,” no matter what your teacher said.
b. “Don’t start a sentence with ‘however’—it hangs there like a wet dishrag.
And don’t end with ‘however’—by that time it has lost its howeverness.
Put it as early as you reasonably can…. Its abruptness then becomes a
virtue.” (Zinsser, 74)
16. Use contractions when they sound natural.
17. Don’t be ambiguous – use personal nouns. For instance, “The common reaction is
incredulous laughter” could be “Most people just laugh with disbelief.” (Zinsser,
77)
18. Don’t use overstatement or people will never believe you in a million years.
19. Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end. For instance, “Humanity has
hardly advanced in fortitude since that time, though it has advanced in many other
ways” could be “Since that time, humanity has advanced in many ways, but it has
hardly advanced in fortitude.” (Strunk and White, 32)